A Few Family Pics

Here are a few pictures of the Southwells taken in October (and my birthday photo with Adalynn!  I still can't believe that she's a year old!!)

41 years and still going!!!

She's such a happy baby!!

LOVE these little ones!

Proud Grandparents

The whole motley crew!!!

Thanks to Maxine - she did an amazing job of keeping us together and getting some really great shots!  One more that is one of my favorites!

The guys' idea of a shoot :)

I did it!!!!!!!! Graduation 2013

I can't believe that it finally happened and that it's all over!  I am no longer a student at the University of Florida, but an alumnus!  Here are a few photos taken the day before graduation (and it was a good thing too since it rained all afternoon/evening of graduation).
 All the pictures were taken by a family friend in Wauchula (she did the photo shoot with me and the kids last year and our family session this past year).  We had so much fun going through campus.  The first three pictures were taken at Lake Alice and we even saw a real gator!  Then we went to the stadium for some shots and then finally met Mom and Dad at the Alumni Hall with Albert and Alberta.

 

Adalynn turns 1!

Where did a year go?  I can't believe that my baby is a year old already!  We had a very small gathering to celebrate (just the 11 Southwells and the 2 Brownings).  She opened presents (with the help of big brother and sister) and ate cake!  She's an adorable little girl and has so much personality!  She hasn't started walking yet, but scoots on her butt EVERYWHERE!!!  I can't wait to see what the next year brings to our lives :) 

I didn't take my typical birthday picture, but will take that this weekend.  We're also doing family photos and should have some good shots of the various families, me w/the kids, Grammy and Papa w/the kids, and hopefully a full family photo!

Here are a few pics of Adalynn at her party.

Opening presents

Yum, this tastes good!

No need to be shy. . .

Do I have something on my 

face

?

I'll post more pictures once I get them from the photographer :)

A Monkey's Day at the Park

When I went home in March for my Spring Break, I took Ethan to the park for some "just us" time.  I had already planned to have Jay and Lily over for a "camping" trip at Grammy and Papa's and wanted to spend some quality time with Ethan as well.  He had a blast!  And it was very hard to convince him that it was time to leave and go pick up Jay and lunch.  I'm sure that there will need to be many more trips to the park.

Stairs that look like a Gator

I see you!!

Cheesing while swinging!

Just a few shots and no, there are no pictures from the camp-out, but we did have s'mores :)

Birthday pictures (as promised)

Ethan - age 3 w/ Aunt Robin

Jay - age 5 w/Aunt Robin

Lily - age 3 w/ Aunt Robin

Since we didn't have much time during the weekends of their birthdays, I decided to take our birthday pictures Easter Sunday.  This way we were all nicely dressed :)

Here is a picture of each child with his/her birthday present:

Jay w/ his Avengers Scooter

Lily got a Gator tutu and
bow!

Ethan w/ his Mickey Mouse
coloring book and puzzles

Jay has pretty much mastered the scooter (and Lily is already asking for one).  Lily wasn't over thrilled with her tutu at the time (she even called it too fancy), but hopefully I will get some good pictures of her in it during football season.  Ethan, I am told, puts his puzzles together almost every day.  And since the coloring book is Mickey Mouse, then it was a huge hit!

Can it really be the end of June already?

Where has the time gone?!  I just realized that I failed to post birthday pictures of me and the kids and will have to do that soon!  We had a rather uneventful birthday season this year as we only had one party for 3 kids' birthdays.  Jay and Lily were taken to Disney for their birthday instead of a party. and Ethan had his party the weekend of his birthday.  Pics and more info will be posted later.

My time has been spent with work and school (surprise, surprise).  I don't know what I'm going to do come January when I no longer have school as an excuse for my time :).  Yep, that's right. In case you've missed the previous announcements, Graduation is less than 6 months away (that is as long as I pass this semester. . . .Business Finance is NOT my friend)!!!!  I'm so excited and yet in disbelief a bit to the fact that it's almost here.

Work has been really busy (and yes, although I am writing this while at work, I'm forced to take lunch breaks :)) as we went to a new system on April 9 and GN season is upon us!  I've put in for a promotion and am praying that it is where God wants me to be (or that he'll show me where that is).

I'm spending the 4th with the kids, so hopefully there will be plenty of pics and stories to share after that (and yes, I'll get on soon and post the birthday pics mentioned earlier)!

Try and stay cool!

Mom's Birthday Weekend

Mom came up the weekend before her birthday (Feb 22-25) so that we could spend some time together and celebrate.  Things got so busy last year that we never were able to celebrate, so she put it on her calendar in the Fall and was determined to come up and us have this time together.  So determined, in fact, that she drove up to Gainesville (a three hour drive from Wauchula) with a fever and not feeling quite well.  We had talked about going to the Gator Baseball game that Friday night, but once she got her and her face was burning up - I decided that we were going to take it easy and stay in.

We went and grabbed some lunch, then Mom proceeded to take a several hour nap (she claims that she wasn't sleeping the whole time, but she spent a good 3 hours laying on my couch).  I watched some T.V., dozed a little myself, and piddled around the apartment (I'm not used to being home and not having something to do on a Friday afternoon before 5).  We ordered pizza for dinner (Mom had never had Papa John's so I thought I'd introduce her) and watch Casablanca (first time for both of us).

Saturday, Mom said she was feeling a bit better and so I fixed breakfast for us (scrambled eggs, grits, and toast) and we had a rather lazy morning, just watching movies on T.V.  Then on Saturday afternoon, we went to get pedicures, then had dinner at Red Lobster (Mom has a thing for lobster), and then a friend of mine had given me tickets to the Gator Basketball game and so Mom and I went to our first UF Basketball game (see pics below)!  We enjoyed the game, but Mom started getting tired and not feeling 100% so we left at halftime and went home.

Sunday we were supposed to go to O'Brien to visit some cousins, but Mom definitely wasn't feeling up to it. I decided, while she napped, that I was going to call Dad and have him and one of the brothers come get Mom and her car (someone would need to drive her home).  Mom wasn't ready to go to that "extreme" and so I said that she was going to the doctor instead! Sometimes a daughter has to put her foot down and make a parent do something!  We went to an UrgentCare Center and found out that she had bronchitis and a bad sinus infection.  We went home with four prescriptions and the promise that she should be able to drive home the next day as planned (at least none of the drugs should hinder her driving).  Mom went to bed a bit early - around 9 - while I stayed up and watch the Oscars.

Monday morning Mom woke up feeling much better and although I was not ready for our time together to end, I was glad that she was feeling and sounding well enough to drive home.  It was a nice weekend with my Mom, but hopefully next time she won't be sick and we'll be able to do a bit more :)  Here are the pictures from the Basketball game:

Mom and I before the game started

Gators warming up

Albert being crazy as the team
officially takes the court

I will head to Wauchula on Wednesday after work to enjoy the end of my last Spring Break as a UF student!  I have some fun times planned for me and the kids!  Some of them just went to Disney and I can't wait to hear all about it.